Sibley Music Library

This building stood on the corner of Gibbs and Main before it was torn down to build Eastman Place (now Miller Center), the building that has housed Sibley Music Library since 1989.

Ruth Watanabe

Head Librarian, 1947-1984

Barbara Duncan, prior to 1922

Head Librarian, 1922-1947

Sibley under construction

Construction of the Eastman Place building (now Miller Center) that would house the Sibley Music Library, 1989.

Hiram W. Sibley, 1920s

15th-Century Choirbook

Rochester CodexManuscript (between 1070 and 1103)

This unique manuscript on the arts of the Middle Ages is attributed to three authors, including Hermannus Contractus, the leading German music theorist of the Middle Ages. The codex consists of vellum leaves sewn into signatures, which were stitched into modern binding in the late 1970s.

Admont-Rochester CodexManuscript (ca. 1103)

Constituting a Latin manuscript in German Carolingian miniscle hand, the Admont-Rochester codex is a 12th century collection of early medieval theoretical music treatises. Written in Germany or Austria, it was previously owned by the Benedictine Admont Abbey, near Salzburg, Austria, and was purchased by the Sibley Music Library from E.P. Goldschmidt in 1936. The last page of the manuscript features an exquisite Guidonian hand (photographed), devised by theorist Guido d'Arezzo to propagate a method of sight-singing which relied on the six syllables ut, re, mi, fa, sol, and la.

Die Dreigroschenoper is an adaptation of John Gay's Beggar's Opera, with libretto by Bertolt Brecht. The Dreigroschenoper manuscript is part of a collection of original Weill manuscripts from Universal-Edition (Vienna). This photograph of the manuscript full score shows the most famous number in the score, "Moritat" ("Ballad of Mack the Knife").

The only extant manuscript of this song, measuring six pages of music and covering three leaves of manuscript paper, appears to be a fair copy, with several corrections. Set to a text by Klaus Groth, "Regenlied" is wistfully nostalgic, as the rain recalls to the narrator carefree days of childhood. The piano writing emulates the monotonous rhythm of rainfall. Brahms later used the song's main theme in his First Violin Sonata.

One of only three extant manuscript sources of this celebrated orchestral composition (1905), this is a particelle, or short score ─ a detailed sketch or draft, in condensed form, with parts for closely related instruments appearing on single staves. This magnificent manuscript is the Sibley Music Library's single most celebrated holding. The composer's painstakingly fine penmanship, and the multiplicity of colored pencils, never fail to draw admiring comment.

This is one of five first editions of works by Johann Sebastian Bach held by Sibley Music Library. A handsome and spacious engraving, the exemplar is distinguished by the numerous floral embellishments, visually attractive and never failing to catch the reader's eye. Those same embellishments point to the engraver's lack of foresight in plotting out the engraved image on the page, and hence, they represent a means of filling in empty space.

The holograph manuscript score of Hanson's most famous composition. Serge Koussevitzky commissioned the work for the 50th anniversary of the Boston Symphony Orchestra; the New York Philharmonic premier was conducted by Arturo Toscanini, whose markings appear on the score. This is one of two dozen autograph manuscripts presented to the Sibley Music Library by Hanson on November 19, 1949, to mark the 25th anniversary of his appointment as Director of the Eastman School of Music.

A rare, incomplete set of the partbooks of the Masses of Josquin des Prez ─ the Superius and the Bassus from the liber primus, liber secundus, and liber tertius. The Sibley partbooks are believed to date from a 1514-16 printing by Ottaviano dei Petrucci (1466-1539), the first to print polyphonic music from movable type. Petrucci's "multiple-impression" printing method initiated the dissemination of polyphonic music.

Giuseppe Sammartini, 1695-1750Manuscript of various sonatas(ca.1760)

From 1729, the Italian oboist and composer Giuseppe Sammartini lived in London, where he was one of the leading writers of concertos and sonatas. The contents of this manuscript are varied: seven sonatas for solo oboe; eighteen sonatas for the flute traversière; and one sonata for solo violin. Several different copyists' hands are represented, and most of these sonatas remain unpublished.

Music theorist, composer, choirmaster, and priest Franchinus Gaffurius was the first music theorist to have many of his works published. Theorica musice is a theoretical treatise in five books, covering a broad range of musical topics and problems, including classification of music and the physical properties of sound.

Henricus Glareanus, 1488-1563Dodecachordon(Basel, 1547)

A fusion of ancient thought and contemporary practice, the Dodecachordon (1547) was the work of Swiss-born humanist Heinrich Glareanm who wrote with authority on mathematics, geography, philology, poetry, and music. The text contains monophonic and polyphonic musical examples, and is a valuable anthology of musical compositions by Josquin, Obrecht, Ockhegem, and Isaac. The Sibley exemplar is one of many that Glarean inscribed in his own hand, containing a prefatory address signed Glareanus propria manu.

Fux was an Austrian composer, theorist, and church musician. His Gradus ad Parnassum was the most important modern textbook of counterpoint, for generations a primer in the art of strict composition in a capella style.

The Toscanello was perhaps the best general treatise on musical practice of its generation, especially informative on counterpoint and compositional process. It includes the earliest published description of mean-tone temperament. Published in Italian instead of Latin, it was one of the earliest music treatises in the vernacular.

This book of vihuela repertory and teaching music contains eight of the Masses of Josquin des Prez, virtually complete, in addition to works by other composers and numerous songs and romances.

My Lord Danby, his bookManuscript (between 1765 and 1770)

This unique anthology was written for William Henry Osborne, Earl of Danby (1690-1711), a proficient lutenist who succumbed to smallpox a few days before his 21st birthday. The manuscript containsnumerous transcriptions of early 18th-century compositions, including works of Corelli and Handel, notated in French lute tablature.

One of three piano-vocal scores (with Puccini's La Bohème and Wagner's Die Walküre) owned by the Sibley Music Library, which were used by the Covent Garden stage manager. In each score, one page of musical text is followed by one blank page, on which the stage manager made production notes (cues, lighting directions, and stage diagrams).

Richard Wagner, 1813-1883Tannhäuser(Dresden, 1845)

A copy of the first edition of the full score of this opera, for which Wagner himself etched the image for the lithographing process. In effect, this represented a self-publishing venture in which the composer's own hand formed the printed image.

This copy, number 227 of the limited first edition of the piano-vocal score, was signed by the composer (George Gershwin), the librettist (DuBose Heyward), the lyricist (Ira Gershwin), and the producer (Rouben Mamoulian) of the first production (1934). Mamoulian's first employment in the United States was at the Eastman School of Music, as Assistant Director of the Opera Department and Director of the Department of Dramatic Action and Dance (1923-26).

The piano-vocal score of the musical comedy which featured the hit song "It's De-Lovely." Copies of Red, Hot and Blue! were cited as "extremely rare" in one recent antiquarian trade catalogue. Of this limited edition, 300 copies were printed, this copy being number 210, signed by the composer.

Leonardo Vinci, 1690-1730ArtaserseManuscript copy from the library of the Earl of Aylesford

A manuscript copy of the full score of Vinci's last opera, on which his fame now rests. Artaserse was first performed at the Teatro della Dame (Rome) on February 4, 1730. The manuscript was originally a holding of the famed library of the Earl of Aylesford, a friend of George Frederick Handel, and bears penciled annotations attributed to Handel.

Giacomo Puccini, 1858-1924Madama Butterfly(Milan: Ricordi, 1904)

This is an engraved proof copy of the first edition, with revisions in the composer's hand. The copy is one of a substantial cache of rare editions of nine operas by Giacomo Puccini, purchased with funds generously provided by Dr. John F. Flagg (UR '36). The Sibley Music Library published a catalogue of these editions in 1997, edited by Dr. Michael V. Pisani (ESM '96).

The prolific Henry Bishop is now remembered for little other than the ballad "Home, Sweet Home" from Clari (1823), composed during his tenure as music director at Covent Garden (1810-24). The song enjoyed immediate popularity: Donizetti used it in Anna Bolena (1830), and the "Swedish Nightingale," Jenny Lind, often sang it in concerts.

Marin Mersenne, 1588-1648Harmonie Universelle(Paris, 1636-37)

Regarded as the most indispensable printed work written by Mersenne, the Harmonie Universelle is a treatise on both the practical and theoretical aspects of music. The author was simultaneously mathematician, philosopher, music theorist, and an all-around Renaissance man.

Another of the Sibley Music Library's five first editions of works by J.S. Bach, the Clavierübung is one of six known holdings in the United States. An acknowledged masterpiece of solo keyboard literature, the Goldberg Variations constitute the fourth and final volume of the Clavierübung, which J.S. Bach had commenced in 1731 with the publication of the Six Partitas, BWV 825-830.

Forkel was the early biographer of J.S. Bach, and is generally regarded as the founder of modern musicology. His Allgemeine Geschichte der Musik (vol. I, 1788; vol. II, 1801) represented the first German attempt at a comprehensive history of music, and constitutes a bibliography of writings on music from antiquity through the late 18th century. This volume is from the library of the famous American music historian Oscar Sonneck.

After violin studies at the Paris Conservatoire, Pougin embarked on a writing career, contributing to numerous journals and completing a biography of Verdi (1886). In 1885, he was appointed chief editor of Le ménestrel. His vast working library, containing scholarly texts and also many operas in full score, piano-vocal scores, and piano solo transcriptions, was acquired by the University of Rochester in 1923, and divided between the Rush Rhees Library and the Sibley Music Library. His principal interest was the musical theatre, an interest manifest in this reference work which he compiled.

One of the acknowledged polyphonic masterworks of the Renaissance, composed by one of the most prolific and versatile composers of the 16th century. The partbooks of Lasso's Magnum opus musicum are known to reside in only four United States libraries.

French illuminated manuscript, between 1253 and 1262Dominican gradual

The dating of this Dominican gradual is based on the inclusion or exclusion of certain Saints. The gradual contains music for the Mass, as well as some offices. It is written in French on fine vellum, in an even, careful script, with intricate decorative work best seen in the initials. Marginalia indicate close attention to liturgical changes, and elsewhere, extensive markings on the calendar of Saints, where names have been added or erased.

Dominick Argento, 1927-Four Seascapes(2004)

This choral-orchestral work, by the Pulitzer Prize-winning American composer and Eastman School of Music alumnus Dominick Argento (PhD '58), was commissioned by the Hanson Institute for American Music to commemorate the centennial of the Sibley Music Library. The work was first performed on October 16, 2004, by the Eastman-Rochester Chorus and the Eastman Philharmonia, conducted by William Weinert. A setting of passages by Herman Melville, Thornton Wilder, Henry James, and Mark Twain, Four Seascapes was inspired by some of the writers Argento enjoyed during his student years at Eastman, as well as by his fascination with bodies of water.

Mary Wallace Davidson

Head Librarian, 1984-1999

Sibley Music Library Reading Room

early 1920s (currently ESM 120)

Sibley Music Library Reading Room

late 1940s (currently OSL 101)

Plaque in Sibley Music Library entrance lobby

"This musical library given by Hiram W. Sibley is for the use of all music lovers in Rochester."

Ruth Watanabe

Head Librarian, 1947-1984

Sibley Music Library

The exterior of Sibley Music Library. Photo taken from Gibbs Street capturing the arch above the main entrance to Miller Center.

Sibley Music Library

The interior of Sibley Music Library (1987- ). Photo taken from the 3rd floor facing east towards the main entrance of the Library on Miller Center's 2nd floor.

Sibley Hall

Prince Street Campus, early 20th century

The following text is found at the beginning of one of our books (Bohuslav Martinů, The Man and his Music, by Miloš Šafránek):

To THE Purchaser of this Book, from its Publisher:-ALL PAPER, including the paper on which books are printed, as well as the materials which go into the manufacture of paper are absolutely essential to the prosecution of the war.§ § Because of this, book publishers are now seriously restricted in the amount of paper which is available for books. For 1944 my firm is allowed but three-quarters as many pounds of paper as weused in the calendar year of 1942.§§This means that unless we economize in the use of paper in every way possible, we shall not be able to print anything like all of the books readers will demand of us. This is particularly important because our list abounds in good books published as long as twenty years ago (the Borzoi was founded in 1915) for which there is still steady demand and which we do not wish to let go out of print.§§We are therefore reducing the size of our books and 1 also their thickness, and have made an effort, without sacrificing readability, to reduce the number of pages by getting more printed matter on each page. For this we must beg your indulgence, though I think that in many ways the smaller and thinner books are more attractive to handle and to read than their larger and fatter fellows. On the other hand, despite the shortage of all materials that go into the making of books and the critical manpower shortage among all printers and binders, we intend in every way possible to preserve those physical qualities which have long made Borzoi Books outstanding. We will use clothsof as good quality as we can procure and will maintain the same high standards of typographical and binding design. ... See MoreSee Less